If we cannot help you we will do our best to direct you to someone who can.

I have a warranty issue. Who should I contact? Please review our "30 day exchange, refund and warranty information" page here.

The short answer is: If you are within the first 30 days, please contact us at Netgate.Login to your account using the "Account" button on the upper right hand corner. Goto your order and select the items that need repair.

If it has been longer than 30 days, all product issues will be addressed by the manufacturers warranty. All products come with a limited manufactures warranty, typically one year, unless otherwise stated and may vary depening on the product and manufacturer. Warranty service will be handled directly by the manufacturer in most cases.

Many people like the mini PCI form factor for their Soekris boards. You will need a card, pigtail and antenna to get your system up and running. See our Soekris kit pagefor more details.

Dude! I've got a Dell!UPDATE: We have two cards, the CM9 / 5004 MP Atheros 4G and the EMP-8602 6Gthat have the antenna connectors on the same (RIGHT) side of the card as the Dell TrueMobile cards. We recommend that you consider either of these cards as an easy replacement over our other miniPCI cards.

So how do I install it? The answer is "it depends." Some of the Dell laptops are designed so it is easy to access the mini PCI slot. Others were not designed to allow easy access. In general if your laptop is less than a year old you probably have the pigtails and antennas already embedded in your system. All you need to do is install (or upgrade) a mini PCI card. If you have never installed a miniPCI card into a laptop before, check out this handy tutorial.Although it is not specifically about our card, they do show nice pictures which should help you get your card installed correctly the first time.

NOTE: The Dell Truemobile cards have the antenna leads on the right. The antenna leads on all of our cards are on the left (except for the new 5004 card here).This has presented many problems to those who do not wish to engage in laptop surgery. Please read and understand all of this information before you order a miniPCI card in order to save yourself some time, money and frustration.

The key seems to be to contact Dell Spares and ask for "Part #37THY." This specific part number is not on the Dell spares website, so we are not entirely sure you can obtain this part as of July 2004.

G.R. has this to say about installing our mini PCI card into the Dell Inspiron 8500 (8600 will be the same):

"If anyone asks, they need to download the system service manual from the Dell technical support site, and follow all the instructions for removing everything down to the system board (this involves removing absolutely everything covered by the manual). One antenna (the white lead) is just next to the power socket, and the other (the troublesome black aux lead) is on the left-hand front side of the computer next to one of the speakers. Unfortunately, the antenna leads are attached to the underside of the mount that holds the system board (i.e. between the mount and the board), so to get at them you really need to detach the actual system board from its mount (this is one step beyond what is covered in the manual). Then it's simply a matter of removing the tape and redirecting the black lead. (The lead is soldered to the antenna at one end, so you can't just unplug it and stick a replacement in \- but fortunately, it is possible just to reroute the existing lead.) The white lead can also be rerouted in this manner if you so desire.

Dell seem to be incapable of telling me which of the three types of u.fl cable it is - seems to be double-shielded, which would make it the 1.13mm or 1.32mm diameter. I fired off several messages to their support address, then fought my way through an inane artificial intelligence engine that convinced itself I was asking how to install RedHat Linux, then finally got a reply from a human clone in India who was doing his best to imitate an inane artificial intelligence engine. After several dialogues strangely reminiscent of ELIZA and SHRDLU from the 1970's, I gave up; a quick web-search reveals that this is not an isolated experience. (Jamie, tell your boss never to replace you with an Indian artificial intelligence clone).

Hope this helps someone somewhere sometime ...your card is way cool and I am most happy with it.\" (Thanks G! Double thanks for sharing your experience to help everyone else.)

Or if you're not that brave, consider purchasing a Senao EnGenius 200mW access point or client bridge. This will do a lot for you relative to the 50mW Linksys (or DLink, or nearly anything else on the market). The manufacturer claims 4x the distance. If this isn't in your budget, consider this simple alternative:

The 2.2 dBi rubber duck antenna that ships with your Linksys can be replaced with a 5.0 dBi rubber duck antenna. The physics calculations here say that for every 3 dBi in gain you will see about 50% more signal. (Remember that walls, trees, people, etc. cut down on signal strength, and also remember this is an omni directional antenna so we're also talking about a circle (remember that pesky pi*r^^2 thing?)

My computer appears to have installed a Spanish driver. What happened?

If you find your computer has installed the spanish Red Inalambrica ADSL branded drivers, you have Automatic Updateturned on.

Symptom: Configuration utility language changes to Spanish once driver and card are installed and system is rebooted.

This is a Windows Update Issue. When plugged in to an internet network connection, Windows Update automatically searches for the "correct" drivers for the hardware that is installed (i.e. the wireless network card). Even if the drivers have already been installed from the cd, Windows Update seems to replace those drivers with new ones. These drivers are the ones that change the configuration utility language to Spanish.

Solution: uninstall the card and utility program as directed in the instructions. Also, remove all of the driver files used by the network card. These files can be found by opening the wireless network connection, clicking on configure, click on the driver tab, click on driver details.

The files that should be deleted were the following: wlannds.sys, wlanusb.sys, wlancfg.cpl, wlanioc.dll, wlanres.dll, and wlansta.exe.

Make sure to search all folders for these files and delete them (for me they were located in c:\windows\system32\, c:\windows\system32\drivers, and a backup folder that I can't remember).

After removing the programs and files, reboot your system.

Next, disconnect the network connection. Then follow the installation procedures given in the instructions. In short, the drivers on the cd are fine. You just have to disable the Windows Update function or disconnect from the network.

When running Windows, not all options on the configuration utility are available. What's up?

Solution: with the card installed, open network connections, click on the wireless network connection, click on the advanced tab, click on the wireless networks tab. There will be a box with "use windows to configure my wireless network settings. Uncheck this box. (you don't have to be logged on as an administrator).

Is Windows 95 or Windows 98 supported?

Even though the PDF literature and EnGenius data sheets say the cards support Windows 95, they DO NOT. We've had several problems with Windows 95 drivers, so we do not recommend using our products with the Windows 95 operating system. We have also had some problems with Windows 98 machines.

Remember these operating systems were invented before wireless or broadband communication was available. If you are running a system with Windows 95 or 98 and attempting to connect to the Internet using wireless, DSL, or Cable: good luck. Your DSL or Cable provider probably doesn't officially support these operating systems and you shouldn't expect devices like wireless LAN cards, many USB devices, cable and DSL modems, etc. to work out of the box with your computer.

I would like to take this moment to thank SBC for the particularly hard lesson regarding Win95, Win98 and NT systems while working on their self-install CD. I would also like to say Mahalo to Austin Ventures for collapsing BroadJump into Motive, taking them public and stripping the value out.

Windows does not detect the PC Card when installed. What can I do?Verify that the PC Card is properly inserted into the PC Card slot.

Check whether the computer has a Plug and Play BIOS.

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP might not detect the PC Card if a previous installation of the PC Card was cancelled before it was finished. Remove the previous driver, and redo the installation again.

My driver fails to load. What can I do?

A resource conflict could exist.

For Windows 98/ME/2000, use the Device Managerto resolve resource conflicts.

Select System from the Control Panel, then click on the Device Managertab.

My LED card light doesn't light or is nonfunctional. What can I do?

The PC Card is not powered on. The cause may be:

No Driver loaded or installed.

Card – Driver mismatch which prevented the driver from loading.

Device conflict which prevented the driver from loading.

You are caught in a timewarp and are about to be abducted by space aliens.

Actions:

Verify that a driver has been installed.

Determine if there is a conflict with another device.

Drink some tequila. Try again.

My system reports a device conflict on a Windows system. What can I do?A device conflict under Windows 98/ME/2000 may be related tothe PC Card.

For Windows 95/98/ME/2000, use the Computer properties to identify the used I/O port addresses and IRQ values.

If there is a device conflict, select alternative settings for I/O Base Address or IRQ values. If you know which device is conflicting with the PC Card, you have the option of changing that device\’s I/O address or IRQ instead of changing the PC Card.

No resource conflicts were detected, but the wireless station does not attach to the network. What can I do? Verify that the SSID of the PC Card matches that of the access point. Use the Network Configuration Properties Application in the Control Panel to modify the SSID. Verify that the Network Modeof the PC Card is configured correctly.

I'm getting a weak signal or intermittent connection. What can I do?Try reorienting the antenna. The PC Card antenna is attached to the end of the PC Card. For best use of the antenna:

Keep the area around the antenna clear from materials that could block radio transmission, such as metal objects, electronic devices, and cordless telephones.

If your signal is weak, change the direction of the antenna slightly. If necessary, move your notebook computer a few inches to find a better signal.

Use the Link Quality and Signal Strength display in the Client Utilityto determine the best location and orientation for a network connection.

If you need suggestions on improving the signal strength, you should contact EnGenius Technologies at 888-735-7888. Signal strength isn't an indicator of throughput. I would check the driver version to ensure you're running V 8.0.1 or 8.0.2 (Intersil) or V 3.02 (Atheros based cards only - released 2/20/2004) which can be found here

LINUX / BSD

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I have a Linux system. How can I use your equipment? That's great! Atheros cards are supported via the madwifidriver. Intersil cards are supported via hostAP, and a variety of other sources.

You may also want to check out the Jupitermedia's paper called "Building and Securing a Linux-Based Wireless Network", available here.

Netgate does not offer free Linux support at this time.

Where are the Linux drivers for the Atheros 802.11a/b/g cards (Senao, EnGenius, Ubiquiti, Wistron, Compex)?

The drivers for many of these cards are already included in your newer Linux loads. You can also check out the progress on the Atheros madwifi driver here

Does the PCI Adapter run under Linux? Yes. However your mileage may vary depending upon the version you are using. See http://www.red-bean.com/~proski/plx9052/readme.plx9052 which is a PCI Driver for PCMCIA to PCI adapters running a Prism card. Be sure to note the 5V vs. 3.3V warning. (WE DO NOT PROVIDE LINUX OR BSD SUPPORT.)

What about BSD? FreeBSD? NetBSD? OpenBSD?

Intersil cards (2511):

If your OS supports the "wi" driver, then our 802.11b Senao / EnGenius cards will work. The card ID for the 2511 series is "intersil" Try:

wi driver (ifconfig wi0 ssid foo channel 6 mediaopt hostap up).

Atheros cards (3054, 5004, 5354, 8602):

The 3054 / 5004 / 5354 / 8602 cards all have Atheros chipsets. Check your favorite driver (madwifi, ath, wi) to see if this chipset is supported under the BSD flavor of your choice.

One satisfied customer writes: A lot of security people are using FreeBSD because it has interface polling, greatly enhances the amount of traffic you can process on an IDS system over Linux or Windows.

FreeBSD 5.X supports the "ath" driver for Atheros based cards. For FreeBSD 4.x, the kernel will need to be recomplied with that driver. You also need to add the ath_hal device. Add these lines to your kernel config file:

device ath # The ath driver device ath_hal # needed by ath

How do I change the software to support the additional Japanese or European channels?

With madwifi-old (not madwifi-ng) and before, you have to edit / driverdir /hal/ah.h and recompile.

Then if you still want a higher power card with your TiBook get one of our 2511 cards.

I don't see much improvement on my Mac system. What am I doing wrong? You should see MUCH better reception than with the Apple Airport card... Quite possibly your built-in internal airport card is still 'on'. All you have to do is "turn airport off" in the airport menu. Easy...

I'm still having some problems installing my Source Forge driver. What else can I do? One common trick to try is to uninstall, then re-install the driver. If the Network panel for System Preferences didn't announce new hardware, then you need to try this (uninstall and reinstall). Are you running MacOS 10.1? See http://wirelessdriver.sourceforge.net/faq.html#install Try firing up the "WirelessConfig" Utility or running the TroubleShooting Script Also try contacting the SourceForgesupport organization.

MINI PCI CARDS .

I want to replace the mini PCI card in my laptop with one of your cards. Will it work?First and foremost, the miniPCI cards we sell are OEM cards, designed to be put into embedded systems. If you purchase and install one of our miniPCI cards into a laptop system you do so at your own risk. We do have several drivers for Windows, Linux, etc. and we have sold many cards to individuals who wish to utilize these cards in non-OEM situations. So it *should* work for you, but you should thoroughly read and understand the FAQ information that follows.

Now to answer the real question: There are lots of factors. It is difficult to predict what will happen with a particular card in a particular laptop because there is no control over several things:

Length/location of the antenna leads attached inside the laptop

size of the opening inside the case (there are two sizes of miniPCI cards)

spurious emissions inside the laptop that can affect the wireless card performance (or even cause it to not function

skill level of the person installing the card/pigtails/drivers.

some laptop vendors change the insides of the laptop without changing the model number.

RF-KILL switches that many Japanese laptop vendors are required to install which must be disabled/enabled in BIOS.

Some of these items are addressed below. The real answer to will it work? is it depends.

The difference between Type IIIA and IIIB cards is: Type IIIA is slightly larger than Type IIIB, so any Type IIIB card should bit into a Type IIIA slot. Here are the dimensions:

Type IIIA is 50.8 x 59.6 x 4.9mm Type IIIB is 44.45 x 59.6 x 4.9 mm

Does your laptop already have antennas/antennas leads embedded in the system?(most new laptops do.)

If you do not have at least one cable with a U.FL connector hanging out in your mini PCI slot, or if you cannot find a U.FL connector to the internal antenna on the motherboard near the miniPCI slot, then you CANNOT use a wireless mini PCI card. There are no aftermarket antennas that we are aware of. We do have a 2 inch U.FL to U.FL jumper cable if you can identify the motherboard connector for your antenna lead. New Rumor has it the Dell Spares department carries a jumper cable. Ask for part # 37THY.

Here is a list of laptops that should be compatible with our mini PCI cards. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOUR ANTENNA LEADS WILL ALWAYS BE ABLE TO REACH THE CONNECTORS WITHOUT SOME LAPTOP SURGERY. This list is NOT comprehensive and does NOT constitute a guarantee.

I want the most up to date driver available. Where can I find it? The most up-to-date Windows98se/ME/2000/XP, Windows CE 2.0/3.0/NET4.0, Pocket PC 2000, Linux 7.0 (Linux 7.2 has embedded the drivers already) drivers are here. Click on "Driver Download" under "Services & Support" to find the best driver for your product.

If you have an Atheros card, you may want to check here or for Intersil cards check here.

There was no CD included with my Atheros based 5354, 5004, CM-9, EMP/NMP-8602, -8601, WLM54G Card. Where can I get the driver?Our miniPCI cards are for the OEM/ODM market. None of the mini PCI cards ship with a CD, however we have drivers available for download for every card.

Atheros based card (WLM54G, 5354, 5004, 8602, etc.) drivers are located here.As of September 2004 use the ClientSetupV3022.zip driver with the 5354, and 5004 cards.

If you have purchased a non-IBM card or want to know what is up, read on, then call IBM to complain.

There used to be a good overview on thinkwiki (still a useful list of cards is posted as of 4/2005): here

Here is generally what is happening: The IBM BIOS seems to keep them from working (last update Sept 10, 2004). The BIOS will stop before it reaches the stage of booting an OS if you insert one. It's not a bug, since the diagnostic that shows up quite clearly complains about it being a non-standard miniPCI card. At least, this is the case with our T30, and we find it unlikely that IBM decided that they would no longer include this 'feature'.

Remove miniPCI card from laptop (if it's currently installed) Boot into WinXP Shutdown into 'standby' mode Install Adapter Wakeup from Standby mode XP should see and install the adapter drivers and it should then your miniPCI card will workWhenever you reboot you will have to go through this procedure again..

How do I enable Turbo mode on my IBM miniPCI card?

Not for the faint of heart:

Start up regedit

enter \hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\control\class

find atheros

add

Name=abolt type=string value=1

Name=disableTurboG type=string value=0

The EMP-8601, EMP-8602, CM-9, CM-11HP, and 5354 MP ARIES data sheet says it is possible to adjust the transmission power. How do I do that? In the API, go to the Profile Modification page under Advance. You will see a Transmit Level Adjustment.

I've installed your miniPCI card in my laptop that has a WiFi radio on/off switch. The driver installed but the radio won't turn on. What can I do?

There could be several things you need to setup manually before your radio will turn on.

Go into the BIOS, look for a setting called something like "wireless control" this should be set to whatever the key combo is. While you are there, also make sure any other settings for wireless are enabled.

For example, some of the Toshiba Satellite models use Function+F8 to Enable/Disable the Radio Switch.

If you have a Toshiba and it did not come with a wireless card initially, you may want to download and install the wireless programs such as ConfigFree from the Toshiba website here.

For a Dell system, you may need to install the Dell Quickset program.

Finally, Toshiba phone support has recommended this hack:

Cover pins 11 and 13 on your mini-pci wireless card (even pins are on the bottom side, the odd are on the top. For orientation, the "top" of the card is where you plug the two antenna in.)

While facing the "top" of the card count to pin 11 and 13. (from the "cut" in the card over, don't forget to count the lone pin as well "1,2") cover both pins 11 and 13 with finger nail polish. Let it dry, replace the card, start your laptop, and you should be able to configure it from there. Thank you to Marturion, Stormbringer, et. al. on techspot.com

Books, nay dissertations, have been written about this. In general, an omni is always nice for an access point.

Every situation is unique - you need to consider that you are dealing with two way communication devices, so your throughput will be limited by your weakest link.

If you are trying to connect from a centralized location in an office, a stout omni is a good place to start (we have 2 dbi, 5 dbi, 8 dbi and 15 dbi omnis suitable for indoor use). If you are a WISP and are trying to connect to customers over some distance, through varied terrain, trees, buildings, etc. you will have to consider how many subscribers/clients you are attempting to connect, in what direction, through which obstacles. If you are working with fairly short distances and no interference, our 8 dbi omni or 15 dbi omni may be sufficient. If you are in a difficult environment, you may wish to look at sectorized omnis, or break your coverage into zones covered with yagis, patches or panels on different channels, sufficiently isolated to minimize co-interference.

If you are establishing a long distance point-to-point link, going over water, through obstacles, etc. the multi-beam antennas would be your best option.

What is antenna diversity or receive diversity? Antenna diversity is basically a move against indoor multipath fading using spatial redundancy. When the signals emitted by a radio bounce off walls, ceilings, and other reflective objects in the environment, the reflections vary in space and frequency. Essentially the antenna receives several 'copies' of the signal, shifted in time, space and/or frequency. The receiver can only 'see' combinations of these signals. Nearly every 802.11b radio I've seen supports only receive diversity, if diversity is supported at all. When transmitting, only one antenna is used. Typical tests show a 3dB 'system' gain if diversity is present at both ends. So yes, in a free-space LOS situation, you shouldn't care about antenna diversity. But its not so much that one antenna might receive something that that other does not, but rather that one antenna will 'see' a better signal, and the switches in the diversity section of the analog section will direct this better signal to the radio.

I have mostly direct line of sight (LOS) to my WISP tower, except for one lone pine tree. Will that really effect my ability to connect?Yes, absolutely. The short story is:

One customers experience: With one tree in the way, a 200mW radio and a 24 dBi grid antenna, the signal strength was -80 dB. With the tree cut down, the signal strength improved to -65 dB. The tree caused 25 dB of loss.

Why? Think PHYSICS. Look up Fresnel zones. Think of every leaf on your tree blowing in the wind, reflecting signals in 5000 different directions...

Why use a sectorized omni or sectorized antenna approach? What are the advantages over a single omni? There are many advantages to using this approach. The main disadvantage is cost.

The benefits are:

Increased client capacity

By utilizing one radio per sector, you can increase the number of connections made per area. So if you use a three-sector approach using channels 1,6, and 11 with three 802.11b access points (one per sector), you should triple the capacity for that coverage area since there will be fewer connections made per sector vs an omni.

Higher gain / better signal levels

Sectorized antennas typically support uptilt/downtilt features so you can easily adjust the antenna to cover the maximum useful area. Sector antennas have better gain and radiation patterns than omni antennas for this purpose.

Increased channel availability

Since sector antennas support a particular channel in one area, a second Access Point at a distance in the same sector, or near the horizon at your next Wi-POP should be able to run with a different channel & no interference issues, even if they in general cover the some of the same area.

Co-interference minimization

Properly isolated, sector antennas should not interfere with each other. They are directional in nature & have good front-to-back ratios.

Increased availability

If one AP / sector is damaged, the other APs / sectors continue to operate. You reduce total system downtime by utilizing a sectorized approach.

ALIX BOARDS

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I can't configure pfSense using webconfig after loading my CF card. What's wrong?In general, you need to look at the pfSense forums and wiki for support.

When buying a ALIX board from Netgate, either separately or as part of a “kit”, be aware that you will have to perform the following steps (details of which are outlined by other posts on the pfSense lists.):

Update the ALIX BIOS to the latest version. Go to this link for the latest download (http://www.pcengines.ch/alix2.htm) and there is a link there for the instructions for using FreeDOS.

Download the latest version of pfSense to a CF card (many ways to do that), but make sure you download the embedded version. We use a CF reader/writer and physdiskwrite.

Set up pfSense. I am surprised how many people try to plug-n-play a raw download of pfSense. Starting with the assignment of interfaces, the set up must be done or either nothing or unpredictable results will occur.

Suggest that once you get a running system, use the backup capability to save your configuration in XML.

If you order an assembled system, such as any of the Netgate m1n1wall products, Netgate will perform steps 1, 2 and assign at least one interface (vr0) to the LAN.

I recently purchased an ALIX system from you that had pfsense pre-installed. I’m trying to access the system but do not know the default IP address. Can you help me? The default IP address for vr0 (the first Ethernet port near the power plug) is 192.168.1.1

I received an ALIX board or kit. How do I add and configure the operating system to get it working properly?

When buying a ALIX board from Netgate, either separately or as part of a kit, be aware that you will have to perform several steps in order to reach a boot prompt on your system. When you buy a m1n1wall or wireless readysystem from Netgate, we perform several of these steps for you. Read on to see what will work best for you.

Regardless of the OS you use, you will have to create and/or copy a bootable image to your CF card. For exampleif you plan to use pfSense, you will need to perform the following steps (details of which are outlined by other posts on the pfSense lists.):

Potentially update the ALIX BIOS to the latest version. Go to this link for the latest download (http://www.pcengines.ch/alix2.htm) and there is a link there for the instructions for using FreeDOS.

Download the latest version of pfSense to a CF card (many ways to do that), but make sure you download the embedded version. We use a CF reader/writer and the program physdiskwrite.

Set up pfSense. Many people try to plug-n-play a raw download of pfSense. This won't work. Starting with the assignment of interfaces, the set up must be done, otherwise either nothing or unpredictable results will occur.

We suggest that once you get a running system, use the backup capability to save your configuration in XML.

If you order an assembled system, such as any of the Netgate m1n1wall or wireless readysystem products, Netgate will perform steps 1, 2 and assign at least one interface (vr0) to the LAN for you. You will still need to configure pfSense for your particular planned use and network setup, and backup the configuration file.

I have a PC Engines WRAP board lockup, which requires a reboot. What could be causing this problem?

We have never had a report on our PowerG8 WRAP boards locking up. (as of 4/20/2005).

Some veteran WRAP board users have reported that lockups/crashes are usually power and/or static issues. Any system will crash if the power gets too low. Any system may lockup when there is a lightning strike nearby or the systems are not properly grounded or isolated from hot towers.

Here are some suggestions:

Make sure any outdoor unit is electrically isolated and well grounded.

Use good surge arrestors on the RF and Ethernet sides and make sure they are grounded as well. (This may present a problem if you are using POE but it can be done.)

I have a preconfigured PowerG8 system with two antennas. Which antenna is 802.11a and which is 802.11b/g? Or which is the main and the auxilliary?

This depends upon the configuration of your PowerG8 system: one or two radios, And which miniPCI cards are installed. Right and left assume you are looking at the front of the box with the PowerG8 logo on it.

Single Radio Units:

CM-9 - The primary lead is the one on the right and secondary lead is attached to the antenna on the left. So, the 802.11a is the antenna on the right/left [pick one] and the 802.11b/g radio is the one on the left/right [pick the other one].

2511 & 3054 – The primary lead is on the left and the secondary lead is attached to the antenna on the right.

Dual Radio Units:

Each lead goes to the primary contact on each radio card. The first radio listed is the lead on the left and the second radio list is on the right. So, with a PowerG8 WRAP 2511-CM9 the primary antenna connection on the 2511 radio is connected to the antenna on the left and the primary antenna connection on the CM-9 is attached to the antenna on the right.

Better yet, the labels that are placed next to the antenna connectors during assembly are intended to help.

For Single Radio units the labels are:

“1 Primary Antenna” – attached to the primary transmit/receive connector on the radio card.

“Auxiliary Antenna 2” – attached to the alternative connector on the radio card.

For Dual Radio units the labels are:

“Radio 1” – attached to the primary antenna connector on the radio (e.g., 2511, 3054, CM-9) that appears in the product name first.

“Radio 2” – attached to the primary antenna connector on the radio (e.g., 2511, 3054, CM-9) that appears in the product name second.

I would like to set up a filtered bridge. How can I setup the PowerG8 WRAP system (using m0n0wall) so I can have a range of public addresses passing through the interfaces? I have a colo network and would like to firewall them.

LEAF is a secure, feature-rich, customizable embedded Linux network appliance for use in a variety of network topologies. Although it can be used in other ways, it is primarily used as a Internet gateway, router, firewall, and wireless access point.

The ME2000 is an operating system focused on wireless networking. It is linux based, and a variant of the LEAF Bering 1.2 release. See leaf.sourceforge.net for more information. It allows you to build a box with a mix of access point and client mode wireless cards in one box, which is a cheap alternative to multiple access points for a node where multiple antennae are required. I all fits in a small Compact Flash card, so there is no hard disk, thus keeping power usage and noise to a minimum.

FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for x86 compatible (including Pentium® and Athlon™), amd64 compatible (including Opteron™, Athlon 64, and EM64T), Alpha/AXP, IA-64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC® architectures. It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley.

NetBSD is a free, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system available for many platforms, from 64-bit Opteron machines and desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent in both production and research environments, and it is user-supported with complete source. Many applications are easily available through The NetBSD Packages Collection.

m0n0wall aims to create a complete, embedded firewall software package that, when used together with an embedded PC, provides all the important features of commercial firewall boxes - including ease of use - at a fraction of the price. m0n0wall is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web server, PHP and a few other utilities.

The m0n0wall website provides ready-to-use m0n0wall images for the WRAP, the Soekris net4801 and other hardware.

m0n0wall is worth considering seriously if you're looking for a firewall or wireless access point. It is an excellent package.

pfSense is a m0n0wall-derived operating system platform with radically different goals such as using Packet Filter, FreeBSD 6.X, ALTQ for packet queueing and an integrated package management system for extending the environment with new features.

We need a sub-zero option for the PowerG8 WRAP system. In particular, we need a system rated to -20 C. Can you help me?

The issue is that at (or around) 0 °C the crystal oscillators used to run the board (and radio cards!) will freeze. This typically isn't a problem while operating, as the board will make enough heat to keep the inside of the case above 0 °C, except in severe cold or cold-with-wind conditions. However, during "cold start" conditions, its impossible to "unstick" the oscillators merely by driving them, and without the clocks, the rest of the components won't make heat.

Adding the resistive heater and logic to control it would raise the cost (and price) of the unit significantly.

As a suggestion, you could use the existing knock-out to power a small board with a digital thermometer, a small logic chip that can read the thermometer, and a relay that can in-turn supply up to 18 VDC to the board (powering it on) once the temp is above 0 °C. Once the system is on, if the temp in the box drops below, say 5 °C, you could switch the heater back-on, assuming that you can get enough Watts up the pole to supply both the resistive heating element and the board itself.

PCI ADAPTER

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Do you have installation instructions for the PCI Adapter?PC Card Drive Installation ProcedureDriver version 1.1 August 2002 ** Please install software before you install hardware.

1) Software Setup Procedure * If your system is Windows XP, you can skip this setup.

1. Power on your computer with Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000 2. Insert the setup diskette into the floppy disk drive of your computer; Or download the driver from our WEB and unzip the zip file to a proper file folder. 3. Run "Setup.exe" and the welcome dialog box appears, click "Next" to continue setup. 4. The "Software License Agreement" dialog box appears, read through it and click "Yes" to continue setup. 5. The setup program will automatically identify the running system, install corresponding software and configue your system for the PC Card Drive. 6. Click "Finish" to compltet the software setup.

1. Power off your PC and remove the power plug from the wall outlet. 2. Remove the cover of your computer. 3. Install the PC Card drive to a free PCI slot and utilize the mounting screw to secure the PC card drive in place. 4. Put back and secure the cover of your computer 5. Re-connect the power plug back to the wall outlet and power on your computer. 6. Finish!

Does the PCI Adapter run under Linux? Yes it will. Several people have reported success, while others can't seem to get it to work in their system. YMMV. See this PCMCIA on Sourceforge page See red-bean.com which is a PCI Driver for PCMCIA to PCI adapters running a Prism card (such as our 2511 CD PLUS family). You may want to check with Sourceforge for PCMCIA info and madwifi info for Atheros card support (5004, 5354, 8602). Be sure to note the 5V vs. 3.3V warning.

Is there a USB wireless device you recommend? Yes, we have a 200mW high power Atheros based USB deviceavailable now. It has three flavors: 802.11g with an integrated antenna, and with a RP-SMA antenna jack, and a 802.11a/b/g with integrated antenna. woot!

How many concurrent users / capacity can your Access Point (or bridge) products handle per mode?There are two answers:

1) The AP will allow up to some set number of associations before failing to associate new clients. The number is in the the vxworks (or m0n0wall) code, but it, like the hostap and madwifi drivers are, essentially "unlimited". Most code these days introduces a "soft limit" of 1024 associated clients.

There is a "hard limit" in that the "Association ID" (AID) space is only "so big". Basically AIDs 1 - 2007 are defined, and AIDs are "per BSS", so you could have, at a maximum , 2006 stations associated with a single AP.

2) If those clients are active, however, the 802.11 protocol scales poorly, and you'd never get that many online. This is one of those "it depends" answers, since it really depends on the traffic being generated by the AP clients "right now".

In short, anyone who promises you a specific number of users per AP has probably constructed a test scenario to connect N users with low bandwidth usage and is reporting an artifically high number. Real world usage will vary depending upon bandwith used, physical environment and proximity to the AP.

What is VSWR/ what is Return Loss? What is the difference between them?VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio) and Return Loss are both a measure of the same parameter but expressed in two different ways. VSWR is the amount of signal reflected by a connector or antenna, which is the major factor contributing to the total signal efficiency of a connector or antenna.

Return Loss is the portion of a signal that is lost due to a reflection of power at a line discontinuity (where a change is made from say a cable to a connector, or a connector to an antenna). Return loss is a logarithmic measurement, so it is very useful when displaying very small reflections.

On the other hand, VSWR is the ratio of voltage applied to voltage reflected. VSWR is a linear measurement, so it is more useful when displaying larger reflections since small differences are not compressed as they are in a logarithmic measurement (e.g. Return Loss).

The CB5's that we have installed will stop allowing connections after some period of time. I can still connect to them remotely but when I go Running Status-->Station Info, all I get is a blank table. When I reboot the Cb5, then users show up in the table. What is happening and how can I fix it? We've experienced this problem when customers do not use a shielded cable going from the PoE injector to the CB5 and / or the PoE injector is not properly grounded. Try replacing the cable and grounding the injector.

How can we set the ACCESS POINT mode for the 2611 CB5 PLUS or 2611 CB5 PLUS EXT?Here are the instructions for the CB5+ firmware upgrade through HyperTerminal. You have to upgrade the firmware using the zmodem with console cable.

Be careful, if you fail any command during the below procedures, DO NOT power off or reboot the unit. You MUST retry the same command until it's success, thanks.

What are all these acryonyms? dBm? dBi? mW? What do they mean and how are they related?

dBmdBm: decibel (referenced to milliwatts). dBm is a measured power level in decibels relative to 1mW. It is useful for looking at gain or attenuation.

dBidBi: Decibel (referenced to isotropic radiator)

mWmW: milliwatts Using dB notation simplifies power calculations in communications systems. For example, if the measured power at the input of an amplifier is 3 dBm and the gain of the amplifier is 20dB, then the measured output power after the amplifier should be 3 dBm + 20 dB = 23 dBm. 23 dBm = 200mW.

How do you convert between dBm and Watts?

mW to dBm = 10Log10(Watts) + 30

dBm

Watts

dBm

Watts

dBm

Watts

0

1.0 mW

16

40 mW

32

1.6 W

1

1.3 mW

17

50 mW

33

2.0 W

2

1.6 mW

18

63 mW

34

2.5 W

3

2.0 mW

19

79 mW

35

3.2 W

4

2.5 mW

20

100 mW

36

4.0 W

5

3.2 mW

21

126 mW

37

5.0 W

6

4 mW

22

158 mW

38

6.3 W

7

5 mW

23

200 mW

39

8.0 W

8

6 mW

24

250 mW

40

10 W

9

8 mW

25

316 mW

41

13 W

10

10 mW

26

398 mW

42

16 W

11

13 mW

27

500 mW

43

20 W

12

16 mW

28

630 mW

44

25 W

13

20 mW

29

800 mW

45

32 W

14

25 mW

30

1.0 W

46

40 W

15

32 mW

31

1.3 W

47

50 W

Everyone talks about Line of sight or Non line of sight systems. Why are all WiFi systems restricted to Line of sight?

The 2.4GHz spectrum is free (unlicensed) because it is a terrible bandwidth for reliable communications. Why else would the FCC give it away?

Seriously, the 2.4 GHz frequency is absorbed by water (think microwave ovens) and wood, and what isn't absorbed is reflected. Think about the 5000+ leaves on a tree blowing in the wind. 5000+ little reflectors interfering with your 2.4 GHz signal.

Thus 2.4 GHz signals do best in free space, or in line of sight applications. When you think line of sight you probably think about a line, right? Unfortunately it's not that simple. There is something called a Fresnel zonethat defines a cylinder (more or less) through space that needs to be as free of objects as possible in order to get the maximum signal possible.

There are free space and fresnel zone calculators available online in many places.

Per the recommendation of the FCC, the installation of high gain directional antenna to the system, which are intended to be operated solely as a point-to-point system, and whose total power exceeds +30 dBm EIRP, requires professional installation. It is the responsibility of the installer and the end user that the high power systems are operated strictly as a point-to-point system.

Systems operating as a point-to-multipoint system or those that use non directional antennas cannot exceed +30 dBm EIRP power requirement under any circumstances, and do not require professional installation.

RoHS Compliance

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What is RoHS?

Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS).

The European Union Directive 2002/95/EC requires the substitution of various heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium) and brominated flame retardants (polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)) in new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market from 1 July 2006.

See this Wikipediaentry on RoHS, and the external links at the bottom of that page for additional information.

Are your products RoHS compliant?

Many of our products are RoHS compliant, and will be marked as such on each webpage if we know.

For certain products, there is a RoHS exemption regarding "...network infrastructure equipment for switching, signaling, transmission as well as network management...".